SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / BRETT CRAWFORD, AP FILE PHOTO
Sky View Middle School sixth-graders Eric Jenny, 11, left, and John Liddy, 12, talk about a new helmet they designed to help prevent players in contact sports from getting concussions. The helmet is attached to a frame that they used to test impact. Inset, Patriots receiver Wes Welker absorbs a hard hit from Pittsburgh safety Ryan Clark.

LEOMINSTER -- When New England Patriots running back Stevan Ridley and wide receiver Wes Welker suffered head injuries last winter, it got three friends at Sky View Middle School thinking.

Eric Jenny, 11, John Liddy, 12, and Christopher Mabie, 12 -- all sixth-graders -- named themselves the Falcons (even though the school mascot is the hawk) and set to work finding a better helmet to protect athletes.

"This came up because some of our favorite football players were getting concussions," John said.

The students are now national finalists in the U.S. Army's national eCybermission competition tasked with solving a community problem using science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

"I thought it was pretty cool because we're just a bunch of sixth-graders," John said.

The competition is being administered by the National Science Teachers Association in Arlington, Va., and the finals are scheduled to be held in Leesburg, Va., the week of June 17.

There are four finalists each in grades 6-9.

The competition is designed to encourage interest in the STEM subjects, said eCybermission spokeswoman Jackie Fuller.

Competition organizers provided cyber guides and webinars to help the teams competing.

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The Falcons teammates brainstormed ways to make the padding in helmets better and figured it was time to (literally) think outside the box. They decided to put padding on the outside of the helmet. Padding on the inside of helmets is already compressed by a wearer's head, which reduces the ability to absorb shock, Eric said.

"But outside, it will only be compressed when it hits something," Eric said.

They studied different absorption materials and settled on a combination of carpet padding and sofa stuffing.

SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / BRETT CRAWFORD
Sky View Middle School sixth-graders Eric Jenny, 11, left, and John Liddy, 12, talk about a new helmet they designed to help prevent athletes from getting concussions. The helmet is attached to a frame that they used to test the impact.

The trio designed the exterior padding wrapped in duct tape so it would slide on the helmet during impact to further absorb the blow.

The team even approached neurologist Dr. Douglas Katz of the helmet manufacturing firm Ops-Core of Boston, which designed helmets used in the movie "Zero Dark Thirty." He provided encouragement, John and Eric said.

The team needed an accelerometer to measure their invention's effectiveness, but couldn't afford a commercial product. They turned to PBS' "Dragonfly TV" to learn how to make their own using PVC piping, string and a 3/8-inch nut as a weight.

A new football helmet was more than their budget would allow, so they are using one of Eric's old hockey helmets. They designed a rack to drop the helmet 3 feet so they could measure impact based on how many inches of string were yanked down by the sudden stop.

First, they tested without padding as a control. Then they added their invention.

The first round of the competition was done online working with their team adviser, Mary Jenny. The team put information about its problem-solving in a mission folder. It beat four other teams from Massachusetts to move to the regionals.

There, the team submitted its information during a teleconference competing against teams from across the Northeast in April. The team has spent the last few weeks preparing for the national competition and the five-minute presentation it must give.

"Now we actually have to make posters and stuff," Eric said.

The Army gave the team funding to buy a $250 accelerometer and its results matched the homemade model, John and Eric said.

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